It focuses on the interpretation of the life and times of Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), industrialist and art collector.

Today's museum began as an eleven-room, Italianate-style house purchased by the Fricks shortly after their marriage in 1881.

[3] The Frick Art Museum's collection includes a large group of works on paper by Jean-François Millet, Renaissance and Baroque bronzes, and nineteenth-century European paintings.

In the Frick Art Museum, there are Renaissance and Baroque paintings with secular themes by: Apollonio Di Giovanni ("Scenes from Homer's Odyssey"), Jean-Louis de Marne ("Seine at Saint Cloud"), Carle Van Loo, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Steen, Jan van Os, and Arthur Devis.

In Clayton, in the mansion Frick lived in are 19th Century paintings by Jules Cazin, Jean-François Raffaëlli, and Anton Mauve.